Organization to honor Memphis' young women in technology

As part of an effort to encourage girls and young women to choose careers in technology, the National Center for Women & Information Technology and the University of Memphis will recognize six female high school students in the arena of computing and technology later this month.

The awards ceremony will be held March 26 at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis with feature keynote speaker Shiloh Barnat, Vice President of Strategy at Lokion Interactive. Kerry Crawford, creator of the I Love Memphis Blog will host, and AutoZone representative Audrey Jones will present the awards.

The West Tennessee area 2015 winners are Anna Raheem, Anne Raheem, Marie Heisig, and Monica Vayahara of Collierville High School; and Xioahuan Xue and Gabrielle Black of White Station High School.

This year is the first year that the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing will be introduced in the region. Organizer Laney Strange said that previously there was an NCWIT affiliate that covered all of Tennessee, and the annual awards event was hosted in Cookeville at Tennessee Technological University.

“They did a fantastic job, but I wanted to introduce an affiliate here so that we could support and encourage our local young women with a community of Memphis technologists and entrepreneurs,” Strange said.

Nationally, applications are reviewed and evaluated by technology professionals and researchers and a small percentage of applications are chosen to receive the Aspirations in Computing Awards. One of the local honorees, Anne Raheem, is one of the national winners.

“At the local level, we wanted to recognize all of our local applicants in some way,” Strange said. “We created three categories of awards: Dreamers, Thinkers, and Doers. We selected honorees into each category based on the projects they’re working on and how they described their approach to technology and learning.”

Aspirations in Computing is a program of NCWIT, a coalition of over 450 universities, corporations and organizations dedicated to increasing the meaningful participation of women in computing. The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing was created to acknowledge the computing aspirations of young women, introduce them to leadership opportunities in the field, and generate visibility for women’s participation in computing-related pursuits. Award-winners have been selected for their outstanding aptitude and interest in computing and desire to pursue computing-related studies of occupations.  Nationally, the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing program is sponsored national by AT&T, Bank of America, Bloomberg and Microsoft with additional support from Google, Intel, Motorola Solutions Foundation and Northrop Grumman.

The Western Tennessee of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is a collaborative effort by volunteers from the University of Memphis, St. Jude Research Center, Rhodes College, and the FedEx Institute of Technology.

“Encouraging young women in technology can have the most tremendous impact when it comes from the local community,” Strange said. “We have a lot of supportive organizations here in Memphis, including Lokion, Coroutine, and Simple Focus, who have all contributed their time and money to making the Aspirations event happen. These companies–and their amazing people–are building technology culture in and around Memphis, and for young women to see and feel the tangible support of their hometown community is fantastic.”